MR. DAVIS (Gucci Mane)

Another new Gucci Mane album, another instance of Steven being baffled as to why he’s become such a phenomenon.

Don’t get me wrong, Mr. Davis – like the rest of his albums – is consistently enjoyable, jam-packed full of jamming features whose wide-ranging vocals manage to diversify the otherwise monotonous productions. And as usual, Gucci stumbles across some legitimately striking moments, such as “Lil Story” sampling N.W.A.’s “Gangsta Gangsta,” and “Jumped Out the Whip” calling to mind the long-lost (but never forgotten, at least by me) sound of Mims’ “This Is Why I’m Hot,” down to its awesomely peculiar rhyming scheme.

With all that said, nothing on the record convinces me that he deserves to be heralded as one of the best rappers in the game today.

Though I’ve celebrated his impressive productivity in the past, a part of me wonders if he’d be better off releasing fewer albums. Instead of seemingly putting every damn song he records on one, what if he chose to share only the best tracks with the public instead of showcasing no apparent discernment?

Then again, if this was Bruce Springsteen we were talking about here, I’d be clamoring to hear even his worst outtakes…so maybe I should just chalk up all of this to the fact that Gucci just doesn’t speak to me like he does to others, and leave it at that.

As always, to each their own when it comes to subjective taste in art…